The Fastest States

A look at the percentage of finishers in the top 1,000 at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Published

April 2, 2014

To determine which states may send the fastest delegations to the 2014 Boston Marathon, we looked at last year's results. West Virginia just beat Montana in claiming the highest percentage of its runners to crack the top 1,000 male and 1,000 female finishers in 2013 (17.4%, or eight of its 46 runners). Massachusetts had the most runners–4,860– but less than 5 percent of them finished in the top 1,000. The slowest state? Alaska. None of its 41 runners hit that tier.

Rank

State

Runners inTop 1,000

TotalRunners

Percent inTop 1,000

1

West Virginia

8

46

17.4%

2

Montana

7

41

17.1%

3

New Mexico

13

80

16.3%

4

Nevada

13

85

15.3%

5

District Of Columbia

26

171

15.2%

6

Hawaii

8

57

14.0%

7

North Dakota

5

37

13.5%

8

Colorado

70

523

13.4%

9

Wyoming

3

23

13.0%

10

Oklahoma

11

86

12.8%

11

Louisiana

12

95

12.6%

12

Maine

23

202

11.4%

13

New York

171

1,542

11.1%

14

Arkansas

4

37

10.8%

15

Kentucky

13

122

10.7%

16

South Dakota

3

32

9.4%

17

Idaho

8

90

8.9%

18

Pennsylvania

77

880

8.8%

19

Oregon

30

351

8.5%

20

Texas

78

913

8.5%

21

Indiana

24

284

8.5%

22

Florida

50

592

8.4%

23

Virginia

55

654

8.4%

24

Ohio

56

680

8.2%

25

California

162

1,980

8.2%

26

Connecticut

32

419

7.6%

27

Iowa

12

158

7.6%

28

Maryland

34

452

7.5%

29

Wisconsin

33

444

7.4%

30

Illinois

72

991

7.3%

31

Kansas

10

139

7.2%

32

Georgia

26

363

7.2%

33

Michigan

40

560

7.1%

34

Nebraska

6

85

7.1%

35

Washington

37

527

7.0%

36

Vermont

7

101

6.9%

37

Arizona

17

261

6.5%

38

Utah

23

354

6.5%

39

New Hampshire

24

377

6.4%

40

Alabama

7

111

6.3%

41

Tennessee

15

261

5.7%

42

New Jersey

30

563

5.3%

43

North Carolina

23

456

5.0%

44

Massachusetts

221

4,860

4.5%

45

Delaware

2

48

4.2%

46

Rhode Island

6

157

3.8%

47

South Carolina

5

135

3.7%

48

Mississippi

2

59

3.4%

49

Missouri

7

207

3.4%

50

Minnesota

16

542

3.0%

51

Alaska

0

41

0.0%

For more, see the infographic on pages 80 and 81 of Runner's World May 2014.